Car storage garage



Dec. 2, 1952 A. s. ELLIOTT CAR STORAGE GARAGE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 FiledApril 4, 1946 A.$. ELLIOTT.

Dec. 2, 1952 A. s. ELLIOTT CAR STORAGE GARAGE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 FiledApril 4, 1946 amm.

INVENTOR- A.S- ELLIOTT 3 ?MWZ f ATTYE Patented Dec. 2, 1952 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE CAR STORAGE GARAGE Alexander S. Elliott, Toronto,Ontario, Canada Application April 4, 1946, Serial No. 659,618

2 Claims.

1 This invention relates to improvements in car storage garages.

Many proposals have been made in respect to garages for the storage of asubstantial number of cars. Proposals of this kind generally em- .body aplurality of storage floors and inclined runways running from floor tofloor and which usually are of substantial width in order to permit thepassage of cars going up and going down, while such runways are usuallymade substantially in the form of a'spiral so that the car travels in acircuitous route. This means that the space in a storage buildingallotted to runways must be double that which would be necessary if onesingle straight runway were possible, and where provision is made sothat cars may use the same runway both going up and going down the widthof the runways must be four times that of a single runway such asreferred to forthe purposes of comparison. Consequently, verysubstantial space is taken up in such structures merely for runwaypurposes and consequently storage space available is reducedsubstantially in comparison to a structure which employed a singlestraight runway serving various floors of the building.

The present invention avoids the disadvantages of the prior art, such asgenerally referred to above, and provides a structure which may employ asingle straight runway designed to lead cars to upper levels and asingle straight runway either above or below the first mentioned runwayand leading cars downwardly from the upper level. Alternatively, aportion of the runways adjacent to the exit may be offset from the otherto provide separate entrance and exit as will later appear.

In prior garage constructions, it has been necessary to leave asubstantial open space on the several storage floors in order tomaneuver the cars into a position for parking in a manner that they, maybe readily taken out when desired. According to the present invention,such space is materially reduced while cars parked on the various levelsare readily accessible and may be easily taken out when desired.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a storagegarage for cars which by reason of material savings in space will storea large number ofcars and a substantially greater number than ispossible in storage buildings of equal size constructed according toproposals of the prior art.

A further object of the invention is to provide a particularly noveltype of runway wherein the inlet runway and the outlet runway aredisposed one above the other and may be provided as straight inclinedrunways leading to the various storage floors provided and permittingthe location of said runways merely at one end of the building ifdesired.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a car storagestructure wherein the free floor space provided on the various storagefloors is reduced to a minimum while providing for the easy maneuveringof cars on said space as they are being parked in-readily accessiblelocation.

The invention will be fully understood by reference to the followingdetailed specification taken in conjunctions with the accompanyingdrawings.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a perspective illustration of a rectangular garage buildingemploying entrances and exits to upper and lower runways according tothe present invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective illustration of one corner of thestorage garage at the entrance and exit to and from the upper levelshowing the manner in which part of the upper runway is offset to permitseparate entrance and exit in respect to the upper and lower runway.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary transverse section taken through the section ofthe building shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary schematic perspective of a manner in which thecars may pass between upper storage floors and the inclined runways.

Referring to the drawings, A indicates a car storage building accordingto the present invention having a lower storage floor l0 and upperstorage floorsll and Ila. Entrance and exit to and from the upperstorage floors II and Ha is obtained through the entrance door openingl2 and the exit door opening [3 which are disposed adjacent to oneanother. The exit door I3 communicates with the upper inclined runway I4 While entrance doorway I2 communicates with the lower inclined runwayI5. These runways are straight runways, one disposed directly above theother, and of a width practicably to accommodate the passage of thewidth of a car with necessary allowance for proper clearance. Since theentrance doorway I2 is disposed to one side of the exit doorway l3,runway I4 is offset as at [6 when it begins to approach the exit l3.Consequently, initially the runway 14 is beside and parallel to theentrance runway l5, and accessible through the exit doorway l3, until itswings to the left as shown in Figures 2 and 3 to overlie the entrancerunway I throughout the remainder of its extent.

From the entrance doorway I2 access is obtained to the lower runway I5by means of a downwardly inclined leadway I8 which slopes down to alower or starting level I9 from which the lower runway inclines upwardlysubstantially parallel to the upper runway I4 throughout the remainderof its extent. Thus, by leading the cars downwardly on the slope I8 fromentrance doorway I2 to the lower level I9 this provides for a spacingbetween the upper runway I4 and the lower runway I5 practicably toaccommodate the height of a car and permitting these runways to run inthe same line, one above the other, substantially parallel to oneanother, saving substantial space in the building. .Moreover, the offsetportion of the runway I4, offset as at I6, will not in effect take upgreater space in the building to the detriment of storage-or the likesince it is, of course, necessary to provide for office space as well asother space such as storage of parts, etcetera, and the offset portionof the runway, while taking up some space which might be used forstorage, on 'theotherhand provides sufiicientspace for the location ofthese important complements of a storage garage, which may includeelevators, all located in the space I1.

As previously indicated, the runways I4 and I5 are chosen of a widthpracticably to accommodate the width of a car so that these runwaystherefore take up a minimum of space in the building. Preferably, it isproposed to cause the marginal portions of the floors of the runways tomerge with the side walls thereof in aigraduated curve as indicated at28 in Figure 2. Therefore, the marginal portions will serve to guideleadway I8 to the starting level I9 then up the runway I5 and may bestored on the first upper floor II by driving the car through thedoorway 43 which communicates with the runway I5 as shown in Figure 4. Asuitable graduated ramp 44 may be employed in conjunction with thedoorway 43 to permit the car to be driven onto the level of floor I I,having regard to the upward slope of the runway I5. The car is thenmaneuvered on the floor and placed in its proper location. When it isdesired to remove the car from the building, it is driven along thefloor I I to the exit 4'5 and over the graduated ramp 46 to the runwayI4 with which the exit 45 communicates. Exactly the same arrangementoccurs in connection with the second floor Ila, wherein the inletdoorway 4T communicates with the lower runway I5 and the exit doorway 48communicates with the upper runway I4. Obviously the same arrangementmay be employed with the third and fourth floors, the only limitationbeing the length of the building which determines the length of therunways I4 and I5, and the height to which they may extend.Alternatively, of course, a second pair of runways in addition torunways I4 and I5 might be employed disposed above the latter, entranceand exit thereto being gained from floor IIa, if it were desired toproduce a building of substantial height with a large number of storagefloors while restricting the length of the building. However, in view ofthe fact that the proposal of the present invention will permit thestorage of a much larger number of cars within a space smaller than thatof the averagestorage garage employingv runways of double 'width forinlet and exit of cars and circling through the building, as referred toin the first of this application, it would not apparently be necessaryto employ a large number of floors.

As acomparison between a storage building now employed and using runwaysof double width. for inlet and exit, circling through the buildings, thefollowing general dimensions are given *of such a known structure,compared to one of the present invention. The known structure-hasa'length of '20? 'feetand a width of 105 feet, employing four storiesabove -'the ground and two floors below the ground, providing elevenstorage levels. This provides for the parking of 514 cars. The runwaysare approximately 30 feet in width to permit the passage of two carsgoing up and down and'also to permit the necessary room for passing onthe turns, at which'point, substantial diificulty .is experienced evenwith runways of this width. The circling runway from floor to floorresultsin arunwayrequiring substantially one mile of travel to go fromstreet level to the farthest point on the upperlevel and then back downto the street level.

As compared to this known structure'of conventional design, astructure lfeet long and 72 feet in width (33 feet less than the conventional, asdescribed-above) and'employing only two stories which are above groundwill park .448 cars or, in other words, will more than double thecapacity of the conventional'building described when taking intoconsiderationthe'number of stories employed, as well as an areasubstantially less, while the complete runway travel to the top floorand back would be not more than 800 feet. These advantages are achievedby the novel arrangement of runway according tothe present inven--tion--'and, as well, the-reduction in free maneuverin space on thefloors compared to that'required 'in aflat floor. 7

The structure of the storage g'arageof the present invention can followvery conventional lines and is preferably made up of a superstructure ofgirders and trusses which may be produced in standard sections andbolted together such that the inner structural parts of the building canbe dismantled and removed in sectionsto b'e'used in another location iffor any reason it was necessary to abandon the original site.Accordingly, the site of the building may be changed with comparativelysmall loss, i. e., the loss of the outer shell or those parts of whichcould not be employed in the new building. This is impossible in abuilding of the conventional design referred to, employing runwayscircling through the buildmgs.

The foregoing will illustrate that I am able to provide a car storagegarage which will house a substantially large number of carscomparatively to the space occupied and a substantially larger number ofcars than conventional structures employing large areas.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a car storage garage adapted to serve a street or likepredetermined level, the combination of: a plurality of car storagefloors horizontally disposed but displaced vertically from thepredetermined level and extending the entire length of the garage; twoinclined parallel spaced apart runways serving all trafiic for all carstorage floors, extendin from said predetermined level and disposeddirectly one above the other a distance sufiicient only to accommodatefree passage of a car with slight additional headroom on the lowerrunway of the two, said runways being disposed in the direction of thelength dimension of the garage and serving traffic moving in oppositedirections to and from said storage floors but each handling trafiic inone direction only; means communicating each of said runways to each ofsaid car storage floors; an opening in said garage through which a carmay pass and located directly at the predetermined level; an inwardlyand upwardly inclined leadway extending from said opening to said upperrunway; an additional opening in said garage located at saidpredetermined level directly adjacent said first mentioned opening; andan additional leadway extending independently from said additionalopening to said lower runway; said first mentioned leadway being offsetwith respect to said second mentioned leadway to provide clearance forvehicles on said second mentioned leadway.

2. A car storage garage as claimed in claim 1, wherein the leadway ofthe upper runway lies in the plane of the runway, and the leadway'of thelower runway is inclined downwardly from said predetermined level andthen proceeds at a level below said predetermined level to a line ofjuncture with said lower runway.

ALEXANDER S. ELLIOTT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

